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U.S. the Place to Invest

It was a relatively quiet day on Wall Street, with the major market averages barely budging. Aetna's (AET) purchase of Coventry Healthcare (CVH) gave the healthcare sector a lift, but the German central bank questioning whether the ECB should buy bonds of struggling European nations put a bit of a damper on the market overall. The U.S., though, continues to be the place to invest, which is helping U.S. equities.

Stocks traded modestly lower on the day, with the Dow off -4 points to 12,272. The S&P and Nasdaq, meanwhile, both traded fractionally lower to 1,418 and 3,076, respectively. Oil edged down -4 cents to $95.97 a barrel, while gold rose $3.60 to $1,623.00 an ounce.

In earnings news, shares of Lowe's (LOW) dropped -5.7% after the home improvement retailer lowered its full-year EPS guidance to $1.64 from $1.73-$1.83 per share. Lowe's expects sales of $50.21 billion. Analysts were expecting a profit of $1.80 a share on revenue of $50.58 billion. In the fiscal second quarter, Lowe's earned $747 million, or 64 cents per share, compared with $830 million, or 64 cents per share, a year earlier. Adjusted EPS came in at 68 cents. Revenue fell to $14.25 billion from $14.54 billion. Analysts had expected a profit of 70 cents per share on revenue of $14.44 billion. Seventy-three pros held Lowe's in their portfolios at the end of Q2 and nearly 670 tickerspy members own the stock in their portfolios.

For-profit education provider Corinthian Colleges (COCO) reported a fourth-quarter adjusted profit from continuing operations of $8.3 million, or 10 cents per share, up from $7.0 million, or 8 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue fell -3% to $394.8 million, while its number of students rose 1%. Analysts had expected a profit of 11 cents per share on $403.2 million in revenue. The company forecast a fiscal first-quarter profit of 3-5 cents per share on revenue of $395-$405 million. Analysts were expecting a profit of 4 cents per share and revenue of $407 million. Shares of Corinthian Colleges fell -1.2%.

Shares of electronics retailer Best Buy (BBY) slid -10.3% after the company named Hubert Joly as its new CEO. Former Chairman Richard Schulze is reportedly still interested in acquiring Best Buy, but those talks are believed tenuous at best. Best Buy said it made an offer to Schulze that would have given him the opportunity to do due diligence and take a buyout offer directly to shareholders, but that he refused. Schulze, in turn, said that he was "shocked" by Best Buy's "abrupt termination" of their ongoing discussions. Eleven pros counted Best Buy among their top holdings at the end of Q2 and more than 600 tickerspy members own the stock in their portfolios.

Shares of Zagg tumbled -13.3% after CEO and co-founder Robert Pedersen resigned three days after he sold almost 14% of his interest in the company in an effort to meet margin calls. An SEC filing indicates Pedersen sold $4.2 million worth of Zagg shares on August 14th. Chief Operating Officer Randall Hales was named interim CEO.